Vision

In the spring of 1820 Joseph Smith, then a 14 year old boy, after having been profoundly inspired by reading James 1:5, resolved himself to ask God which of the many churches preaching near his home he should join. Early one morning he retired to a grove of trees and knelt to pray. In his own words: "After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction. But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destructionnot to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any beingjust at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other, This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! Joseph Smith, History 1:15-17. This composition for full orchestra, youth 2-part choir, and adult SATB choir, is an arrangement of the popular hymn from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints called "Joseph Smith's First Prayer". Be advised: the string, piccolo, bassoon and other parts are quite vigorous in places.